1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cloth obtained by blending base fibers such as synthetic fibers, for example rayon, nylon, etc., and natural fibers, for example, wool, cotton, silk, hemp,, etc. with fluoroplastic fibers. The produced blended cloth is endowed with excellent properties of the fluoroplastic fibers while retaining the beneficial properties of the base fibers. The invention also relates to a method for producing the same.
The excellent properties of fluoroplastic fibers include repellency, non-tackiness, wear resistance, chemicals resistance, heat resistance, etc. These properties can be imparted to a cloth which includes the base fibers by incorporating fluoroplastic fibers into the cloth. The produced cloth thus retains all the beneficial properties of the base cloth with the added benefits of the properties imparted to the cloth by the fluoroplastic fibers.
Such cloth can be used in a wide variety of fields and examples of which are as follows:
Clothes: Suits, sweaters and the like which repel water and which must be stain repellant; clothes that can be worn on a rainy day such as raincoats, jackets and the like which are rich in fashion and have a rain resistant performance. Children's clothes and the like which require stain resistance and wear resistance.
Sports: Clothes such as jackets, slacks and the like for outdoor sports, including swimming suits having water repellency and low frictional properties.
Interior finish work: Carpets, curtains, sheets and the like (for theaters, vehicles and homes) which are stain resistant and easy to clean.
Medical use: Sheets, scrubs and other operational clothes, bandages, adhesive tapes and the like.
Other cloth: Fire hoses, filter cloth, ropes and the like.
Miscellaneous: shoes, umbrellas and the like.
2. Description of Prior Art
Conventional repellent cloth generally includes cloth to which repellency is imparted by coating or spraying a repellent component of silicon or fluoride on the surface of cloth. Repellency is also added to cloth by making the cloth with yarns in which a repellent component is coated thereon.
Such cloth provides an initial repellency, but the repellency is reduced materially as a result of wear and washing. The repellency effect after several washes is lost completely. The repellency can also be lost in a single area of the cloth, even prior to being washed out, when a portion of the cloth is subjected to continuous rubbing.
In addition to the problems discussed above, foreign matter is coated onto the surfaces of fiber and cloth. This coating impairs both the feel and drape of cloth which may impair the value of the cloth.
It is an object of the present invention to: provide a cloth which has overcome the aforementioned drawbacks. That is, the present invention provides a cloth in which repellency is not lost by rubbing or washing; a cloth which maintains its repellency semi-permanently and whose feel and drape is not impaired.